The children use the clothes pins to hold the cotton balls. Dip the cotton in the paint to use on the white paper. Add googly eyes with glue.

You can, if you like, pre-cut the paper into sheep shapes! I have the children use scissors to cut the paper into their best oval shape (possibly pre-drawn on the paper with a white crayon) for the children to practice their cutting skills. They then use the scraps to cut out four legs and glue them onto their sheep shape.

EXTENSION: Glue a large craft stick on the back and use them while reciting Baa Baa Black sheep!

BLOCKS

Add cotton balls and straws to your block area. The children can build a farm for their sheep or sheep pens with blocks and then use the straws to blow their cotton ball sheep around their farm!

CIRCLE TIME

SHEEP SONGS!

What songs do we know about sheep? Sing Baa Baa Black Sheep, Mary Had a Little Lamb and any others you may know!

Add cotton balls, colored pompoms, cotton batting, spoons and cups for the children to try and scoop up! Different weights will eventually sink...add some science questions! Why did some of the cotton sink but not the pompoms?!

WRITING TABLE

Sheep Shapes: Add sheep shape paper to your writing table. Encourage the children to write notes or draw pictures for one another about their sheep!

The children cut out a circle or other shape they want their clock to be.

They paint their clocks using watercolor paints.

When dry, the children draw the numbers 1-12 on their clock OR use number stamps to stamp the numbers on. Have a wall clock on displays for them to see.

*My goal with the numbers is for them to recognize numbers, so the placement of WHERE they put the numbers is not of high importance. If your children are independent at number writing, they may be ready to focus on proper placement of them on a clock.

But remember, clocks and time-telling in and of itself is NOT a preschool goal! Using their fine motor skills to make or stamp the numbers and recognizing and stating each number is!

EXTENSION: Give each child a pre-cut out mouse to use to act out this nursery rhyme and run their mouse to the number as you recite it. Great way to add to number recognition!

BLOCKS

Add colored pom poms with googly eyes glued on for mice. The children can hide the mice in their structures!

CIRCLE TIME

Recite the nursery rhyme. Then say each line separately. Ask the children questions such as:

Why did the mouse run up the clock?

Why did he run back down?

Funny aside: We had an older sibling visiting in our classroom during this discussion. He said the clock ran back down because "Math and numbers scare him!".

Most children have not hear a clock "ring". Do you have a clock that rings? Bring that it for them to check out!

Where is your house little mouse?

I believe this idea may have come from a Mailbox Magazine issue.

Make a small house shape from every color of construction paper. The house should measure approximately 3 inches by 4 inches.

Make a small mouse out of paper that will fit without being seen under the houses.

The children close their eyes and you hide the mouse under one house.

The children open their eyes and you recite:

"Little Mouse? Little Mouse? Which Color Is Your House?"

Give one child a chance to guess, being sure to encourage them to actually say the color of the house, not just point at it!

You say "Little mouse, is your house the _______(color the child chose) house?"

Lift up the house. If not where the mouse is, continue giving each child a chance to say the color and the lift up that color house.

Our kids LOVE this game! We have laminated it and have it available at the math/manipulative table for them to use during the day. You could also add velcro to the backs of the mouse and the houses so that it can be used on a flannel board.

EXTENSION: Although this game is set up for color recognition, you can program the houses to work on any concept you are working on. Some examples:

Small, medium and large house

Letter House (A, B, C)

Number House (number 3 house, number 5 house)

COOKING

Serve cheese and crackers to your little mice of course! Help children to use a plastic knife to cut slices off different types of cheese. Taste the different kinds. Do they like each one? Graph the results!

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

Musical Clocks

Give each child a different instrument (triangle, drum, maraca, etc.). Let them "go crazy" with them to get THAT out of their system! Then try this nursery rhyme activity:

Recite the nursery rhyme. Tell the children that when you say "The clock struck _____" they should use their instrument that many times (bang, shake, hit, etc.).

End this activity by having a Hickory Dickory parade with all the children playing their instruments and reciting the nursery rhyme!

Rhythm and Rhyme

Encourage the children to use their instrument to the rhythm of the nursery rhyme!

SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

Magnet Mice!

Use magnet wands and the large, round colored magnets. In advance, draw a large clock with numbers on it. Encourage the children to pretend the magnet balls are mice. When they use one side of the magnet wand, the magnets will stick and the can drag the "mice" up the clock. When they use the opposite side of the magnet wand, it will push the magnets away, helping them to have the mice run away from the number!

Humpty Dumpty Nursery Rhyme Activities

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men,

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

ART

Egg Shell Art

Materials needed: Many shelled hardboiled eggs. Keep the eggs for egg salad and rinse the shells for art! In advance, place shells in several different bowls. Add water and 1/2 to 1 tsp of vinegar and food coloring. Sit some shells in the bowl until they turn color. Drain and let the egg shells dry on paper towels. Store in separate containers or baggies.

Let the children use the shells and glue to make an egg shell mosaic!

Coloring Eggs

Why not color some hard boiled white eggs?! Use cups with vinegar and food coloring, sit the eggs in until the shells are the shade the children want. They can move them in and out of cups. When dry, draw faces on them!

VARIATION: Don't want to color the eggs? Provide markers to the children to decorate their eggs!

BLOCKS

Add plastic eggs with faces drawn on them! Build block walls to balance the eggs on! Also, add horses and people for the king's horses and men!

CIRCLE TIME

Uh Oh!

This is my favorite Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme activity! Bring a hard boiled egg and a non cooked egg (both still in shells) to circle time along with a metal cookie sheet and some blocks to build a wall...one block for each child.

Ask the children to help you build a wall. Count as you build! Once done, teach them the nursery rhyme. Recite it several times.

Ask why they think Humpty fell off the wall? Show pictures of this nursery rhyme and show that Humpty is shown as an egg!

Now, ask what will happen if you place the egg on the wall you all built?

Try to balance the non cooked egg and then recite the poem and let the egg fall...ewwwwwww!

Now recite it again with the hard boiled egg... Wow! Looks different!

Have the children describe the differences.

Now ask, about each egg, "Do you think all the kings horses and all the kings men could put THIS Humpty together again?" "What about this one?"

COOKING

Egg Salad

Bring out the eggs you de-shelled for the art activity. If you didn't do the egg activity, consider saving the shells from this cooking activity to use for an egg shell mosaic.

The children should help you break up and mix the hard boiled eggs in a bowl. Add a few tbsp of mayonaisse and a touch of vinegar. Mix again.

Have egg salad on crackers for snack or egg salad sandwiches for lunch!

GROSS MOTOR ACTIVITIES

Egg Toss

Yes, toss hard boiled eggs! Place pillows and blankets in between the children to try and make the eggs last longer!

MATH AND MANIPULATIVES

Picture Rhyming

Place pictures of rhyming items on the table (star, car; wall, mall; fish, dish; etc.) Review the words at circle time and talk about rhyming. Place these cards at a table and ask the children to pick up and match the cards whose pictures sound the same.

EXTENSION: You can make this self correcting by having the correct matching picture on the back. For example, if you have a yellow star and a red car card--you would draw a car on the back of the star card and draw a star on the back of the car card.

Egg Counting

Provide egg cartons and plastic eggs. Program them to go with the concept you are working on. For example, if you are working on letter recognition with the letters C, M, and A, print those letters on the eggs and then print the letters on the inside of the egg carton. The children place the egg with the letter A into the section that has the letter A printed in it.

Bandage Matching

Ask parents for donations of band-aids! Place them at a table for the children to match! You can use this activity the day you discuss Jack and Jill as well!

While you're at it, why not add band aids to your dramatic play area to help fix up Jack, Jill and Humpty Dumpty!

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

Fill plastic eggs with beans, rice, coins, etc. and tape them closed. Have the children shake and compare the differences of the sounds. Use them to shake to the beat of the rhyme or other favorite songs!

SAND AND WATER TABLE

Add plastic eggs, toy horses and people to your sand table.

WRITING TABLE

Ovals

In advance, draw and cut out several egg shapes or ovals on sturdy paper or manila folders.

Place these at your writing center for the children to use to trace and cut out their own ovals. Encourage them to print on their eggs and decorate.

EXTENSION: Encourage them to draw their own Humpty Dumpty face on their shapes. Glue a large craft stick to the back and they can use these as stick puppets to act out the rhyme.

Have children "dip" the string in the paint tray (it does not have to be soaking wet!)

They then drag the yarn across the paper to make a cool spider web!

If they have a difficult time getting the string wet, try brushing some paint on the end of the string with a paintbrush.

EXTENSION: Have children glue googly eyes onto a large pom pom (craft glue works best for the eyes to stay on) and glue their "spider" onto the web!

ANOTHER EXTENSION: Cutting skill practice: Instruct the children to choose a small-ish piece of paper to make a spider. They just cut, cut, cut, cut round and round and whatever shape they have left is their spider.

Then show them how to "fringe" a piece of paper and cut off their fringes. Help them to count out 8 fringes and glue them on their cut out spider for legs!

CIRCLE TIME

Recite this poem several times. Then try changing it up:

One of my co-teachers does this with the children, and they LOVE it! Get dramatic--it will catch on!

Use a small, squeaky, quiet voice.

Change "itsy bitsy" to "medium" in the rhyme and use a regular voice.

Change the words to "big huge spider" and use a louder and deep voice!

Another change:

Replace the word spider to each childs name: "Itsy bitsy Miss Cheryl, went up the water spout...".

SAND AND WATER TABLE

Add tubes or pvc piping to the water table (or simply use plastic cups with the bottoms cut out!) and plastic spiders to use while reciting Itsy Bitsy Spider for this water table nursery rhyme activity!

SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

Are there harmless spiders where you live? If you can, catch some and put them in bug jars for the children to observe. Discuss the importance of being careful with living creatures and set them free at the end of the day. Provide non fiction books for the children to check out about spiders!

Encourage children to paint a picture of Jack and Jill and their fall..get it...Water "fall" paintings?

CIRCLE TIME

Bring a large piece of paper to circle for this activity along with a marker! In advance, write the questions "Why did Jack fall?" and "Why did Jill fall?"

Recite the nursery rhyme to them. Encourage them to say it with you a couple of times. Have the children stand up and act it out as you say each line!

Now, sitting with the children, ask basic questions to help them recall the rhyme story:

Where did Jack and Jill go?

Why did they go up the hill?

What does "fetch" mean?

What happened to Jack?

What then happened to Jill?

What does "tumbling" after mean?

Then ask...Why do you think Jack fell? Give each child a chance to answer. Ask the same question about Jill. You will have some pretty unique guesses here! Post for parents to see...they'll love reading this!

COOKING

Make juice today! Give them mini pails (plastic cups) of water to pour into a container. Add a can of frozen juice concentrate to make juice! Instead of mixing it up, let the juice container sit--with the cover on it of course) for the children to observe to see how long it takes the water to melt the juice!

GROSS MOTOR ACTIVITIES

Water Relay

Provide small pails (sand pails work great) to the children. Provide 2 very large buckets or bins (wading pools work nicely!). Fill one large bin with water. Have the children use their pails to move the water from one bin to the other. count how many pails of water it takes.

SAND AND WATER TABLE

Sink or Float

Provide items for the children to put in the water table. Suggestions: small block, paper clip, pom pom, rubber band, a penny--any item from your classroom! Apples and pumpkins usually throw them off--they expect them to sink!

Guess first: Will it sink to the bottom or float on the top!

EXTENSION: Make a chart with each item listed (and pictured!). Take guesses at circle time about whether each item will sink or float and write down their guesses-- How many think the item will sink? How many think it will float.

Record their findings!

SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

Observe Water and Ice

See the Cooking Activity for this nursery rhyme for observing frozen juice as it melts in water!

WRITING TABLE

Provide stencils of people, a bucket a water well (you can draw them onto manila paper and cut them out for tracers).

Encourage the children to draw the story of Jack and Jill for this nursery rhyme activity.

EXTENSION: Provide word or name cards for the children who are printing words to use. Provide words on index cards (preferably with pictures next to them) of Jack, Jill, hill, pail, water, fell, etc.

Jack Be Nimble Nursery Rhyme Activities

Provide red, yellow and orange tissue paper, glue and construction paper. The children glue these on the paper to make a paper flame.

BLOCKS

Tape red paper on the top of a block and provide little people for the children to have "Jack" try to jump over their block candlestick.

COOKING

Ingredients needed: Pineapple rings, bananas, cherries

Have the children help to peel and cut the bananas in half. They place half a banana in the circle of the pineapple ring and place a cherry on the top. You've just made Jack's candlestick!

VARIATION: Most teachers use canned pineapple rings. It is VERY fun to peel and core a fresh pineapple with the kids (ok, YOU will do it!) but many children have never seen an actual pineapple at this age!

GROSS MOTOR ACTIVITIES

Jump!

Bring in a real candle (do NOT light it!!!) for the children to jump over.

The children paint the mixture onto their paper. They add ears and eyes. This dries with a puffy texture!

BLOCKS

Add cotton batting and plastic sheep to your block area. Also, add some people to find the lost sheep!

CIRCLE TIME

Recite this nursery rhyme several times. Bring a stuffed sheep to circle time (or a sheep puppet!). Ask the children to describe where the sheep is (or the sheep can ask where it is if it is a puppet!).

Example: Is the sheep next to or under the chair? Is it on or off the table? Then, ask the children to place the sheep somewhere using these directional words! Work on these spatial relationship words with your preschoolers today.

GROSS MOTOR ACTIVITIES

Hide and seek! Even preschoolers LOVE this game. And they hide in places we would think are so obvious but they just enjoy the game!

MATH AND MANIPULATIVES

Little Bo's Staff

Make mini staffs using pipe cleaners and pony beads. Encourage the children to make color patterns with the beads. Bend them to make a staff shape.

SAND AND WATER TABLE

Add plastic sheep and people to your sand box for them to play Hide and Seek with the sheep!

Provide different types of cotton and wool for the children to investigate with magnifying glasses.

WRITING TABLE

Sheep Shapes

Encourage the children to make an oval shape with wavy lines. It will make their oval look like a fluffy sheep while practicing fine motor control.

EXTENSION: Ask them what they know about sheep and write their answers on their "sheep"

Have the ingredients separated so that each child can add something to the batter! For example, if you have 12 children, split the 1 cup of each type of flour into 1/2 cup measurers and the 1 cup of blueberries into 2 half cup measurers. You now have 12 items to be put in!

Have each child put in their ingredient as needed:

Pour milk, applesauce and egg in a bowl and mix until blended.

In a separate bowl, pour in flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir to mix.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir with a spoonjust until the flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy).

Fold in blueberries.

Divide batter among muffin tins. (Using an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measurer will be easier for the children to do this)

Bake until golden brown. Regular size muffins bake in about 18 to 20 minutes. The mini-muffins bake in about 10 minutes. Immediately remove from pan.

Place the paper in the the box lid or tray. Drop some white paint on the paper. Place a few marbles in the tray. The children move the tray back and forth to move the marble around. Very fun! The kids will want to make a lot of these!

BLOCKS

Add plastic spiders for the children to use in the block area.

After reciting, and possibly acting out this nursery rhyme, ask the children how they would get away from a spider if it sat down beside them! Would they run, would they slowly tiptoe away? Let each one practice doing it!

COOKING

Cracker Spiders

Needed: thin pretzels, cheese spread, round crackers, plastic knives

The children spread the cheese (or vegetable spread!) onto the crackers.

They break 4 thin pretzels in half to add 8 legs to their cracker spiders.

VARIATION: In advance, thinly slice 8 carrot stick slivers for each child to use for legs on their spider crackers.

Curds and Whey

Show the children some cottage cheese and discuss how it is made. Let the children scoop some fruit onto the cottage cheese and try it!

EASEL

Spider Webs

Provide watered down colored paint, black paper and pipettes

Show the children how to use pipettes (eye droppers) and squeeze drops of paint near the top and watch it run down to make some great looking webs!

MATH AND MANIPULATIVES

Materials needed: cupcake tins with white circles placed in the bottoms, large variety of plastic spiders!

Write numbers on the paper circles that you placed in the tins. The children count out that many spiders into the tin.

WRITING TABLE

Hand Spiders

The children trace their hands and then color and deocrate into spiders. Yes, spiders DO have 8 legs, not 5...and we've been called on this time and time again! So, show them how to add 3 more legs by tracing 3 more fingers onto their spider!

Ask the children what type of pet they would have or do have. Does it follow them? Where would it follow them to (the supermarket? the park?). What types of games would it want to play?

GROSS MOTOR ACTIVITIES

Follow Me

Have each child take a turn leading the children in a parade. The children need to move the way the person in the font is (hopping, patting head, marching,etc.) Use other sheep activities on this page such as Little Bo Peep activities!

The children use their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination skills to dip the cotton or pom poms in the glue and cover the sheep shape.

Sorting

Leave the extra cotton balls and pom poms from the previous activity available for the children to sort. Make a counting activity by placing sheep shapes with a number written on each one on the table. The children count out that number of pompoms/cotton balls on that sheep.

Have the children fill the tray halfway with soil. Help them to trace their name in the soil.

They sprinkle the grass seed in their traced letters and then lightly cover with more soil. Water gently (I use a spray bottle) so as not to disturb the seeds.

When the grass grows, their names will show (hey, that rhymes!)

Garden Collage

Using seed and flower catalog pages (see Circle Time activity below), the children cut out the flowers or seeds on their page(s) and then glue them onto a large piece of paper for a class Garden Collage!

CIRCLE TIME

Our Garden

Bring seed and flower catalogs to circle. Have the children tear out pages they like and take turns describing the flowers (small, large, the color, leaves, no leaves). Put their name on their page and use it for the Garden collage activity above under art.

The children draw, color, make designs etc. on the coffee filters with red markers.

They spray the coffee filter with water and the colors run and spread!

The children in our class make several of these each!

When dry (they dry quickly), have the children work together to glue the now pink filters onto a large piece of paper to make a pig shape (yes, it can be abstract!). Add 2 large googly eyes, fold some pink coffee filters and glue as legs, cut one as a curly-q tail and VOILA! Group Pig!

Pigs Thank you Barb from Gilbert, AZ for this idea!

Use pink construction paper. Have children cut out a circle for the head, an oval for the body, rectangles for the legs and triangles for the ears. You can pre cut as much as needed for different age levels. When complete, take a waded up paper towel and lightly dip in brown paint and make the pigs "dirty". Great to review shapes,cutting and following directions.

CIRCLE TIME

Recite this nursery rhyme and then ask for 5 volunteers to act it out. Preschoolers are more apt to do this with props! So, in advance, make 5 Pig masks out of paper plates! Or, give each pig their own identifying prop:

shopping carriage to go to market

keys to stay home

pretend food for roast beef

empty basket for "had none"

a musical whistle or other instrument to "wee wee wee" home

Repeat this nursery rhyme activity enough times for each child to have a turn being a Piggy if they want!

COOKING

Pig Pink Milk

Make this a pink day! Make strawberry milk with your kids! Also, bring some extra milk for the science experiment listed below!

Pig Cookies (Thank you, Phyllis, for this idea!)

Give each child a plain, round, sugar cookie or tea cake.

Place a small dollop of pink icing on. The child spreads the icing iwth a popscile stick.

Cut a pink marshmallow in half to make a circular nose.

From the remaining marshmallow half, cut two triangular ears (I usually snip with scissors across the top rim so there is one cut edge).

Place drops of food coloring, one at a time, into the middle of the bowl. Keep adding drops of different colors into the middle while you talk with the children about what they see. Some of the milk will turn color as it spreads a bit, but this is not the COOL part!

As you are talking with the children, explain that pigs roll in mud, not because they are messy, but because they are hot! They do not sweat like people when they are hot, so they have to cool off in the mud. Tell them you are now going to make colorful mud!

Drop VERY CAREFULLY just ONE DROP of dish detergent in the middle of the food coloring. Wait a few seconds and watch what happens. It is so cool!

Mix together 3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of water and 3/4 cup of vegetable oil. Add some yellow food coloring as well. Knead into a dough.

Provide star shaped cookie cutters for the children to make and count stars with.

If you leave them out to dry, the children could also paint them! If you do this, use a pencil to make a hole in the star so that you can place yarn in it and hang it up when painted and dried!

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT NURSERY RHYME ACTIVITIES

Musical Star Chairs

In advance, program stars. Make 2 of each type of star. You can program them to go along with any concept you are working on: letter recognition, number recognition, color recognition, name recognition.

Place chairs in a circle facing out. Place a different star on each chair. Give each child a chair. Play or sing the song Twinke Twinkle. When it is done, the children should find the chair that has the matching star.

In musical chairs with preschoolers, do NOT remove one chair and have a child out. Competitive games do not help develop teamwork and problem sharing or development in any way.

WRITING TABLE

Provide star, cloud and planet stampers for the children to make a Star gazing picture and tell you a story about their picture!

Miscellaneous Nursery Rhyme Activities

CIRCLE TIME NURSERY RHYME ACTIVITIES

Which Rhyme?

Wrap up your Nursery Rhyme Activities theme with this activity:

Place one prop from each rhyme you've covered in a box or bag (such as a candle, a sheep, a fork, etc.). Have the children take one out. Have each child name what they have. Ask them if they know which rhyme goes with that item.

VARIATION: Instead of passing the items out, pull one out at a time and ask the group if they know which rhyme it is.

VARIATION: Have the children (one at a time) reach into the bag or box and, without looking at the item--only by touching it--guess what it is. (They may not know, that's ok! Have them take the item out, look at it and tell you what it is). Then ask the group if they know what the rhyme is that goes with it.